Paraguay: how Lugo Méndez went from Bishop to President

By Rodrigo Acuña

The Diplomat

May 2008

The recent election of ex-Catholic Bishop Fernando Lugo Méndez in
Paraguay has seen another leftist leader take office in Latin America.
With a ten-point lead over his nearest rival Blanca Ovelar, Lugo’s
centre-left Patriotic Alliance for Change (APC) obtained a convincing 41
per cent of the vote seeing the end of the Colorado Party’s rule since
1947.

As one observer has noted,
throughout Paraguay, Lugo’s victory has been celebrated as if the era
of General Alfredo Stroessner’s dictatorship (1954-1989) were finally at
an end.

Before he came under international attention, throughout Paraguay,
the 56-year-old Lugo was simply known as the “Bishop of the Poor” from
San Pedro - one of the most northern and impoverished provinces of the
landlocked country. Employed as a teacher in his youth, in 1977 Lugo
entered the priesthood. That same year, he moved to Ecuador and worked
as a missionary with that country’s indigenous peoples until 1982. In
1992, Lugo was appointed head of the Divine Word in Paraguay and in 1994
was ordained a Bishop.

What is also commonly not known about Lugo is his personal and
family’s resistance to the Stroessner dictatorship. As the distinguished
Brazilian liberation theologist and Dominican friar Frei Betto recently noted,
during the General’s rule Lugo’s father was detained more than 20 times
while three of his brothers were tortured and expelled from Paraguay.
In 1983, Lugo was also expelled from the country because his sermons
were considered subversive.

By 1996, he hosted the fifth Latin American Congress of Basic Ecclesial Communities in San Pedro. In 2005, according to Andrew Nickson from
the University of Birmingham, Lugo was forced to resign from his post
in 2005 by the Catholic hierarchy “because of his support for invasions
of large landholdings by landless families”. After 100,000 people signed
a petition for the ex-Bishop to run for President, in December 2006 he
accepted the offer and resigned from the priesthood.

Throughout the election, the ex-Bishop-turned-politician faced considerable opposition.

Out going President and strong ally of Washington, Nicanor Duarte
Frutos, charged Lugo as a social agitator whose political supporters
wanted to “burn properties, service stations and other resources to
upset the social peace". Duarte, as reported in the Los Angeles Times on
April 20, said “the one responsible for the violence and death is going
to be Fernando Lugo and his band of delinquents and kidnappers”.

Duarte, according to another report,
claimed that Venezuela was involved in the Paraguayan elections, while
posters bearing Lugo’s resemblance labelled him the “ambassador” of the
Colombian rebels.

Lugo however has kept his distance from Venezuela. Although the
ex-Bishop has expressed admiration for Hugo Chávez’s social policies
aimed at reducing poverty, he has also said he sees himself politically
somewhere between Chávez and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da
Silva.

Undoubtedly, if Lugo is serious about serving the needs of most Paraguayans, his administration will face tremendous challenges.

For a start, Paraguay has never really recovered from the brutal right-wing Stroessner dictatorship.

In the past, although United States aid for Paraguay was not as
substantial, as with the case of other military regimes in Latin
America, it was nevertheless crucial to propping up Stroessner. In 1974,
Amnesty International’s Report on Torture noted that “although
Stroessner has said that he considers the American Ambassador to be an
ex-officio member of his Cabinet, the US has never officially
acknowledged or taken steps to prevent the use of torture by a
government which appears to by very much within its sphere of
influence”.

In 2000, the ties between Washington and Asuncion continued as a US
airbase in Estigarribia was built with a capacity to host 16,000 North
American troops. Further construction of US military bases has also been
discussed. However, most Paraguayans have become critical of their
country’s ties to the White House.

Similarly, people have asked that their government revise its
hydroelectric contracts with Brazil and Argentina. Established under
Stroessner’s rule, hydroelectric plants in Itaipú and Yacyretá provide
Brazil with cheap energy below market prices.

Once in office, Lugo aims to increase the cost of energy to Brazil
while also carrying out a land reform program since 2.5 per cent of the
population owns 70 per cent of productive lands. Roughly 50 per cent of
Paraguayans live below the poverty line - 35 per cent in abject poverty.

With the Colorado Party controlling vast sectors of the state
apparatus though, Lugo as President will require substantial political
courage to carry out his popular mandate. Support from other leftist
governments in the region will be vital.